Contact Us

P.O. Box 333
Carlisle, Massachusetts
978-371-SLOC (7562)

[What's New] [Mission] [History] [Past Productions] [Ancestors] [Mailing List]
[Board of Directors] [Tickets] [Directions] [G&S Links] [Calendar of Events]
 

Member of 
Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theatres
 
 

What's New: 

We are a team of professionals and volunteers who give our time and talent to produce musical theater of excellent quality for audiences drawn from a wide area. All our receipts go directly to the staging of our productions. Ticket prices are kept as low as possible so that we may reach a wide audience. But persistent increases in our expenses and the scarcity of grants for the arts place us in a precarious position. We sincerely appreciate the generous donations we have received in past years. Through our Donor Recognition Program we continue to gratefully acknowledge and reward the generosity of our financial supporters. Please consider including a tax-deductible donation with your ticket order. It will help keep us strong in the years ahead!

You can now make your donation quickly and securely online
using our secure ticket agent, TicketStage.
Click here to make your donation.

The mission of the Savoyard Light Opera Company (SLOC) is "...to associate ourselves for the purpose of encouraging and making generally available performances of the works of W. S. Gilbert and A. S. Sullivan, and other works of similar operatic, musical or theatrical nature, in Carlisle and nearby areas."
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Essay from our
1998 Concert
at the MFA:
The Enigmatic
Victorians

Now located in Carlisle, the Savoyard Light Opera Company has proximate roots reaching back over 35 years to Maynard, and deeper roots reaching back to London, where the first Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration, Thespis, was produced in 1871. The present Company started in 1971, when a group of Maynard townspeople undertook a production of H.M.S. Pinafore as part of that town's centennial celebration. It was a great success and so much fun for the participants that they undertook annual productions of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, thus initiating a tradition. 

By 1980, with ten annual productions to its credit, the group formally incorporated as the Maynard Savoyards, drawing their name from the fact that the fourteen works written by Gilbert & Sullivan are known as the Savoy Operas after the operahouse built by Richard D'Oyly Carte for these charming and timeless musicals. The Savoy Theatre (next to the Savoy Hotel, both named for Savoy Manor which once stood on the site) on the Strand in London was destroyed by fire a few years ago. Happily the theatre was rebuilt and opened again in 1993, where a recently revivified D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performs from time to time. 

Altogether, the Savoyard Light Opera Company has produced eleven of the G&S operettas, many of them more than once, omitting three (Thespis, Utopia Limited, and Grand Duke), each of which present difficulties that to most fans of G&S do not repay the effort of production. 

In 1983 the Board changed the name from the Maynard Savoyards to the Savoyard Light Opera Company, recognizing the fact that they derive their players and audiences not only from the Maynard area but from all of eastern Massachusetts, and anticipating the possibility that the group might wish to depart from the strict canon of G&S operettas, thus infusing new blood and new musical versatility and attracting new audience members. 

The anticipated departure did not actually occur until 1990, with the production of Little Mary Sunshine. A new plan - to alternate year by year G&S productions with other musicals chosen because their wit and musicality measure up to the standards set by Gilbert & Sullivan - was initiated in 1993 with Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady. The company has since performed The New Moon, The Most Happy Fella, Of Thee I Sing, Kiss Me Kate, The Secret Garden, and most recently Camelot.

The Company espouses the ambition to produce shows of a near professional quality, featuring a full orchestra. Auditions are required of all singers, including chorus, and the Company has been fortunate in attracting some of the best talent in the area. It's tradition for excellence extends back over 35 years here in Massachusetts and, perhaps it is not too much to say, through 135 years to the masters who created so much joyful poetry and music. 

-- Philip Drew
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• H.M.S. Pinafore (June 1971 - Maynard, MA)
• Yeomen of the Guard (February 1972 - Maynard, MA)
• The Mikado (November 1972 - Maynard, MA)
• Iolanthe (November 1973 - Maynard, MA)
• The Pirates of Penzance (November 1974 - Maynard, MA)
• Ruddigore (November 1975 - Maynard, MA)
• The Gondoliers (November 1976 - Maynard, MA)
• Princess Ida (November 1977 - Maynard, MA)
• Trial by Jury / H.M.S. Pinafore (November 1978 - Maynard, MA)
• Patience (November 1979 - Maynard, MA)
• The Sorcerer (November 1980 - Maynard, MA)
• Yeomen of the Guard (November 1981 - Maynard, MA)
• Iolanthe (November 1982 - Maynard, MA)
• The Mikado (November 1983 - Maynard, MA)
• Ruddigore (November 1984 - Maynard, MA)
• The Gondoliers (November 1985 - Maynard, MA)
• Princess Ida (November 1986 - Maynard, MA) 
• The Pirates of Penzance (November 1987 - Maynard, MA) 
• Patience (November 1988 - Carlisle, MA) 
• The Mikado (November 1989 - Carlisle, MA) 
• Little Mary Sunshine (November 1990 - Carlisle, MA)
• Iolanthe (November 1991 - Carlisle, MA) 
• H.M.S. Pinafore (November 1992 - Carlisle, MA) 
• My Fair Lady (November 1993 - Carlisle, MA) 
• Yeomen of the Guard (November 1994 - Carlisle, MA) 
• The New Moon (November 1995 - Carlisle, MA) 
• Ruddigore (November 1996 - Carlisle, MA) 
• The Most Happy Fella (November 1997 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Gondoliers (November 1998 - Carlisle, MA)
• Of Thee I Sing (November 1999 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Pirates of Penzance (November 2000 - Carlisle, MA)
• Kiss Me, Kate (November 2001 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Mikado (November 2002 - Carlisle, MA)
• Iolanthe (November 2003 - Carlisle, MA)
• 5/29/1911 - A Gilbert & Sullivan Fantasy (August 2004 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Secret Garden (November 2004 - Carlisle, MA)
• H.M.S. Pinafore (November 2005 - Carlisle, MA)
• Camelot (November 2006 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Gondoliers (November 2007 - Carlisle, MA)
• Annie Get Your Gun (November 2008 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Pirates of Penzance (November 2009 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Music Man (November 2010 - Carlisle, MA)
• The Yeomen of the Guard (November 2011 - Carlisle, MA)

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Place pointer on portrait
(Internet Explorer Only)

Animated graphic created 
for 1996 production of Ruddigore

In 1988, we established the Savoyard Light Opera Company Gallery of Ancestors to honor members who have made outstanding contributions to our organization: 

• Warren Colson, Founding Member (1988) 
• Judy Northrop, Founding Member (1988) 
• John Ostrowski, Founding Member (1988) 
• Ernest Gumm (1989) 
• Janice Dallas (1990) 
• Bill & Nancy Burdine (1991) 
• Muriel Hervey (1992) 
• Philip Drew (1993) 
• Mary DeGarmo (1994) 
• Ron Dallas (1994) 
• Brian Harris (1995) 
• Peter Stark (1996) 
• David Brooks (1996) 
• Donna DeWitt (1997)
• Kurt Lanza (1998)
• Laura Schall Gouillart (1999)
• Lora Chase (2000)
• Deb Poppel (2001)
• Scott Henderson (2002)
• Larry Millner (2005)
• Rollin Jeglum (2006)
• Frank Minosh (2007)
• Susan Schmidt (2008)

Mailing List:

If you'd like to be added to our Mailing List, send us your name and address by completing the form below. Be sure to mention whether you want to receive Audition Mailings, Show Mailings, or both.

[What's New] [Mission][History] [Past Productions] [Ancestors] [Mailing List]
[Board of Directors] [Tickets] [Directions] [G&S Links] [Calendar of Events]
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Savoyard Light Opera Company
Update: 27-Apr-2012